The Board of Directors of Ghana Center for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) is pleased to announce the
appointment of Professor Henry Kwasi Prempeh as the new Executive Director of the Center. Professor
Prempeh’s appointment, which takes effect from February 1, 2018, follows the retirement of the Center’s founding
Executive Director Professor E. Gyimah-Boadi.
A legal scholar and governance expert, Professor Prempeh brings to his new role a wealth of experience and
knowledge from a rich and diverse career as a civil society leader, an academic, a lawyer, a corporate manager,
and a consultant and policy adviser. He has been a member of the CDD-Ghana board since the Center was
founded and served as its first director of legal policy and governance and co-editor of its quarterly Democracy
Watch from 2001 to 2003.
Professor Prempeh was on the faculty of Seton Hall University School of Law (New Jersey, USA) from 2003 to
2015, securing tenure as a full professor in 2008. He was a visiting professor at GIMPA Law School from 2010 to
2011 and has co-taught the “Constitution-Building in Africa” course at the Central European University, Budapest,
Hungary, since 2014. Between 2013 and 2014, he served as constitutional adviser to the UN Special Envoy to
Yemen, assisting the Yemeni National Dialogue Conference and the Constitution Drafting Commission to design
and draft a new post-conflict constitution for the country. A 2011 Reagan-Fascell Democracy Fellow at the
National Endowment for Democracy, Washington, D.C., Kwasi Prempeh is a renowned expert and regular
commentator on democratization, governance, politics, and constitutionalism in Ghana and Africa and has
consulted, lectured, and published widely in the field.
Professor Prempeh previously practised law in Washington, D.C.; first, as an associate with O’Melveny & Myers
LLP (1993-1998) and later with Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen and Hamilton (1998-2001), both leading U.S.-based
international law firms. Prior to pursuing graduate studies in the United States, he was a regional marketing
manager with Pioneer Tobacco (BAT) Ghana Limited. A graduate of Yale Law School, where he served as
Notes editor on the Yale Law Journal and an assistant-in-instruction, Professor Prempeh also holds a master’s
degree in business administration from Baylor University (Texas, USA) and a bachelor’s degree from the
University of Ghana. He is currently a member of the Ghana Law Reform Commission.
The leadership change at CDD-Ghana coincides with the 20th anniversary this year of the founding of the
research and policy think-tank. Outgoing Executive Director Professor Gyimah-Boadi, who leaves an impressive
legacy, notably a 50-person organization with offices in Accra and Tamale and a strong global reputation for
rigorous research and evidence-based analyses and advocacy in support of democracy and good governance,
will remain affiliated to CDD-Ghana as a non-executive member of its board and in his capacity as Executive
Director of Afrobarometer.
For more information, please contact:
Efua Idan Osam
CDD-Ghana Communications Officer
+233 242147970
Email: e.osam@cddgh.org
